Buzz
If you truly aspire to become an author, you must be ready to invest countless hours each day brainstorming unique and engaging ideas. You might find yourself waking up before dawn to begin your "real" work. You could be jotting down thoughts on the train ride home. There will be moments of frustration, but there will also be moments more fulfilling than you can imagine. The feeling of writing a book and seeing it published might just be one of the most incredible experiences in the world. Do you think you have what it takes to truly become an author? To find out, follow these steps.
Steps
Develop Writing Skills
Read everything you can. This might not be what you want to hear when exploring the exciting life of becoming an author, but reading is the key to your success. Reading extensively not only helps you hone your writing skills, provides fresh ideas for refining your work, and builds the patience needed to write your book, but it also gives you a better sense of what sells in the market. Dedicate a few hours each day to reading as many books as possible, and try to cover as many genres as you can.
- If you already have an idea of the genre you want to write in, whether it’s science fiction or non-fiction, focus on reading books in that category. However, to become a well-rounded writer, you should read as widely as possible.
- The more you read, the more familiar you’ll become with common clichés. You want your book to stand out, so if you find ten books that are too similar to yours, you might need to find a fresh perspective.
- When you find a book you truly enjoy, ask yourself what makes it so special to you. Is it the quirky protagonist? The beautiful prose? The vivid sense of place? The more you identify why you love a book, the sharper you’ll be in your efforts to make your own book appealing to a wide audience.
Start with small steps. If you want to become an author, you’ll likely need to begin by publishing a non-fiction work or a full-length novel. It’s challenging to sell a debut collection of short stories or essays. However, diving straight into a novel or a complete non-fiction work can also be daunting. Therefore, if fiction is your passion, start by writing a few short stories to gauge your skills. If non-fiction appeals to you more, try crafting a short essay before tackling a full-length non-fiction project.
- This isn’t to say that short stories are inferior to novels. Alice Munro, the 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, never published a novel throughout her illustrious career. However, gaining recognition through short stories has become increasingly difficult.
Consider earning a writing degree. If you aim to publish a work of literary fiction or non-fiction, obtaining a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Fiction or Non-Fiction is a common path. For more commercial genres like science fiction or romance novels, this route isn’t strictly necessary, though it can still be beneficial. A creative writing degree can open doors to the writing life, connect you with like-minded individuals for valuable feedback, and provide two to three years of focused skill development.
- Many published writers teach in MFA or undergraduate writing programs. You’ll need a creative writing degree for this, so if teaching is your end goal, consider pursuing one.
- A creative writing degree can also help you build connections. You’ll meet faculty members who can assist in publishing your work or guide you in other writing endeavors.
- While a writing degree isn’t a direct path to success as an author, it can significantly enhance your craft.
Seek feedback. If you enroll in a writing program, you’ll spend considerable time in workshops, receiving feedback from peers and faculty. If you don’t take this route, consider joining a local writing group, attending community college workshops, or even asking trusted friends to review your work.
- While feedback should always be taken thoughtfully, it provides a clearer sense of where your work stands.
- Feedback helps determine if your work is ready for publication or if more revisions are needed. Ensure you’re seeking input from the right audience—those who understand your work and its goals.
Start submitting your work to small publishers. If you have a few short stories or essays ready, consider submitting them to literary journals or niche publications that align with your genre, such as historical fiction or romance magazines. Visit doutrope.com to explore available journals. All you need to do is format your manuscript and send a brief cover letter to the editor, then wait.
- This will be your first encounter with a common writer’s experience: rejection. Try not to take it personally and view it as a step toward improvement.
- Some journals charge a submission fee of $50 to $70. While frustrating, this isn’t a scam—many operate on tight budgets.
Write a Book
Come up with a unique idea. The first step is to develop a captivating and stimulating concept. You might start writing before fully forming your idea—you could even write three hundred pages before realizing what your book is truly about. However, begin with a general theme—a story about a girl growing up in Ukraine during the Bolshevik Revolution, or a non-fiction piece on the rising importance of charter schools in America—and see how far you can develop it.
- You may want to complete the entire book before considering its marketability. However, researching the market beforehand can also be helpful. You might discover that a book on your exact topic has already been published, prompting you to tweak your idea slightly.
Choose a genre. While multi-genre books are increasingly popular—like Margaret Atwood’s novels blending literary fiction with science fiction—sticking to a single genre can help convey your idea effectively. Once you know your genre, familiarize yourself with its conventions and consider ways to either follow or subvert them. Here are some popular genres to consider:
- Non-fiction
- Science fiction
- Flash fiction
- Action
- Horror
- Mystery
- Romance
- Adventure
- Fantasy
- Political fiction
- 55-word stories
- Children’s literature
- Young adult fiction
Define the basics. You might figure this out as you go, or you can outline some key elements before starting. Here are some points to consider when writing your book:
- Who: Main and/or supporting characters, antagonist.
- Point of view: Will your book be written in first, second, or third person?
- Where: The setting and time period, the journey within the story.
- What: The central idea or plot.
- Why: What the characters aim to achieve.
- How: The tools they use to achieve their goals.
Write a draft. In her classic writing guide, "Bird by Bird," Anne Lamott emphasizes the importance of the "terrible first draft." That’s exactly what you’ll write: a truly awful, messy, and embarrassing version that contains the seed of the final manuscript you’ll complete someday. You don’t have to show this draft to anyone, but the key is knowing you’re making progress. Write without self-censorship or worrying about others’ opinions. This is the time to get your ideas down; you can refine them later.
- After the first draft, keep going. You might produce something decent after the first or second draft, or it might take five drafts before you feel you’ve nailed it. This process could take months, a year, or even years, depending on your time and how your project evolves.
Seek feedback when you’re ready. Getting feedback too early can stifle your creativity and make you doubt your direction. But once you’ve written enough drafts and are considering sharing your work, feedback is crucial to gauge your progress. Ask trusted friends who are critical readers, bring it to a writing workshop, or even consult an expert if you’re writing non-fiction.
- If you’ve written a novel, consider submitting a few chapters to literary agents for feedback.
- Once you’ve received trusted feedback, work on incorporating it. You might need one or two more drafts to get it right.
Proofread your work. You won’t get far if there’s a typo on the very first page of your book. Once you feel your work is truly ready, print it out and look for typos, grammatical errors, repetitive phrases, or any other mistakes you want to eliminate before finalizing the manuscript. You might even try reading your work aloud to catch awkward phrasing or misplaced commas.
- Proofreading is the final step to polish your novel for publication. While proofreading can also be helpful during the writing process, you don’t need to scrutinize your drafts too heavily, as you’ll likely make many changes to the text later.
Publishing a Book
Consider your publishing path. There are three main routes to choose from when your book is ready to be published. These include:
- Traditional publishing. This involves submitting your book to a literary agent, who then pitches it to publishers. Most people will tell you that you need an agent to get your work published by a major house.
- Direct submission to publishers. You can bypass agents and submit directly to publishers (those open to unsolicited manuscripts). However, this is extremely challenging without an agent.
- Self-publishing. Self-publishing brings your book to the public, but it’s unlikely to garner the attention you seek if you want to live as a full-time author. However, if your goal is simply to share your work, this is a great option. You can self-publish through online services, pay-to-publish companies, or even do it entirely on your own.
Prepare your manuscript for submission. Whether you’re submitting to a publisher or a literary agent, there are some basic conventions to follow. Your manuscript should be double-spaced, use a readable font like Times New Roman, include a proper title page, and have numbered pages with your name and the book’s title.
- You can also find more information online about manuscript formatting. If you’re submitting directly to a publisher, each may have slightly different guidelines.
Submit your work to agents. Don’t rush to send your manuscript to any agent just because they’re open to new submissions. Use resources like the Guide to Literary Agents or AgentQuery.com to find agents actively seeking new clients, open to your genre, and known for responding to submissions. It’s best to look for agents who accept simultaneous submissions, allowing you to send your book to up to five agents at once instead of waiting months for a single response.
- To submit to an agent, you’ll need a query letter—a concise pitch summarizing your book’s plot, its market positioning, and a brief author bio.
- Check each agent’s submission guidelines. Some may only want a query letter initially or request the first two chapters.
- Avoid sending your manuscript to 20 agents at once. Repeated feedback can help refine your work to make it more appealing. If rejected, you can’t resubmit the same book to that agent unless they request revisions, so make your submissions count.
- Patience is key. It may take months to hear back from agents, so practice waiting and avoid checking your email every few seconds to stay sane.
Sign with an agent. An agent writes that they love your book and want to sign you. Should you sign the contract immediately? Of course not. You’ll talk to the agent, ask questions, discuss the book’s future, and ensure they’re legitimate and committed to selling your work. A legitimate agent will never ask for upfront fees and only takes a percentage of profits "if they can sell your book."
- If you receive an offer from one agent, you can inform other agents holding your manuscript to see if they also want to make an offer. You’ll be surprised how quickly they respond once they know someone is interested in representing you.
- Speak to the agent over the phone or even meet in person if possible. This helps you gauge their personality and see if you’re a good fit.
- You and your agent don’t need to be best friends, but you should be able to share ideas openly.
- Your agent should be at least somewhat assertive. This trait will help sell your book.
- Your agent should also have a strong network and an impressive track record to know where to pitch your book.
Negotiate with a publisher. Once you’ve signed with the right agent, you’ll work hard, sometimes for a year or two, to revise your novel until the agent believes it’s "sellable." Then, your agent will package the book and pitch it to editors at various publishing houses, hoping for at least one offer. Sit tight during this tense process and hope for good news soon!
- If you receive multiple offers, you and your agent will decide which one is the best fit.
Work with your publisher’s editor. Congratulations, you’ve signed a contract with a publisher’s editor! Get ready to see your book on shelves next week… Not so fast. Guess what’s next? "More editing." The editor will have a vision for how the book should look, and you’ll need to revise it further. This process takes time, usually at least a year from the sale to the book’s release.
- Other details will need to be finalized, such as the cover design, back-cover blurb, and acknowledgments at the beginning or end of the book.
Witness your book’s release. Once you’ve worked with the editor and your book is ready, you’ll see it hit the shelves in stores and online. You’ll be informed of the release date, and you’ll likely count down the days until your book is available in stores and on Amazon. Hold a copy, flip through it, and congratulate yourself! But your work is just beginning.
Living the Life of an Author
Don’t quit your day job. Unless you’ve written a bestseller, it’s unlikely that book sales alone will buy you a mansion and a Ferrari. You might earn some extra cash and take a break from your "real" job for a while. However, you should be prepared to continue your day job, find part-time work, or even teach creative writing if you have the qualifications and your book is successful enough.
- If you’re passionate about the writer’s life, the most common path is teaching creative writing. But this career is unstable, and your book must truly stand out.
- You can also teach at various summer workshops. These temporary gigs can provide extra income and the chance to travel to exciting locations.
Maintain an online presence. Being a successful author today requires maintaining an online presence. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll need to learn how to promote yourself online and build your author brand. Create a Facebook fan page for yourself and a separate page to promote your book. Set up a Twitter account and tweet about your book-related events. Ensure you have a well-maintained website and that all your online profiles link to it.
- Start a blog about your life as a writer and update it as often as possible. Keep the content fresh to maintain reader interest.
- Don’t feel guilty about self-promotion. Even if you have a publicist, your job now is 50% writing and 50% promoting yourself as an author. Get used to it.
Start a book tour. If you have a publicist and a successful book, you’ll likely have a reading schedule for your book. You’ll travel across cities, or even the country, to read from your book, sign copies, and promote it to the public. You might read at small bookstores or major retailers like Barnes & Noble (if they still exist). This is a great way to meet people, build connections, and convince readers to buy your book.
- Promote your reading schedule on social media so people know where to find you.
Expand your connections in the writing community. Writers aren’t islands. Make sure you attend other authors’ reading events, join group discussions or panels if invited, stay in touch with writers in your field, and generally make yourself known wherever you go. Meet other writers at retreats, writing workshops, or through organizations if you’re a member.
- Get to know writers in your genre and field. They can help you advance further.
Start writing your second book…and then the next one. You’ve just published a book and are promoting it—that’s fantastic. But this doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels, consider your mission accomplished, and celebrate for months. In fact, after selling your first book, you might occasionally mention your second book to your editor, or you may need to pitch your second book to your agent as soon as possible if you haven’t already. A writer’s work is never done, and if you truly want to be an author, you must always be thinking about your next book.
- Don’t worry if you don’t have a solid idea for your second book yet. Set a goal to write daily, and ideas will come.
Advice
- Don’t abandon your story. It could turn out to be amazing!
- If possible, why not sketch your characters to help you visualize them better? You can do the same for settings.
- If you’re stuck on where to start, read a book and observe how professional authors use language. Take notes on punctuation, paragraph structure, and descriptions.
- Write a short story based on the book you’re planning to write.
- To become a better writer, don’t just read—write as much as possible. Write something for hours if you can. You don’t need a specific topic. Jot down whatever comes to mind. Let your pen meet the paper, and the ideas will flow.
